News Corp, Getty Images back EU in Google case

A number of U.S. companies published a joint letter Monday addressed to the European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager in support of penalties against Google for "anticompetitive conduct."

"As U.S.-based companies, we wish to go on record that enforcement action against Google is necessary and appropriate, not provincial," the firms said in the letter. "We have watched Google undermine competition in the United States and abroad."

Vestager is due to rule on a landmark competition case against the tech giant, with a decision expected as early as today. Google is accused of using its search engine to promote its own Google Shopping box — once a price comparison service and now a selection of ads — at the top of search results.

The letter is designed to counter suggestions by some in Washington that the EU is pursuing a protectionist agenda against U.S. tech firms.

"We believe that decisive action is necessary to restore competition and once again open the Internet to innovation and growth," the companies wrote. "We hope that your counterparts in the United States will use this as an opportunity to address similar anticompetitive conduct by Google."

The European Commission could slap Google with a fine of over €1 billion.